Thursday, March 19, 2009

Parenting - It's Not Just For Martyrs!

I've been all over the Internet these past few days looking to read something that is not about AIG and all I can find are endless blogs about *whine* parenting hardships.

No sleep! No nice restaurants! No good hair days!

Whaaaa!!

Is it wrong that I find myself yelling at the computer screen?

Some of these mommies are on the 2nd, 3rd or even 4th child which means that they are on year infinity of parenting drama.

We get it - Parenting. Hard work. Check, check!

But, at what point, does the mother of say, a 5 year old and a 1 year old stop with the diaper dramatics and just enjoy the kids?

When does she invite her friends over for a nice lunch? When does she go ahead a pop in a DVD and sit on the couch and snug up for a half hour of gossip magazine time?

Is she simply too busy blogging every damn hiccup to have a proper shower?

It all seems so contrived... these are mothers of toddlers and preschoolers, not newborn colicky infants, so unless they are being kept in a veal pen, it's a bit hard to swallow that these poor gals are simply just done in by the end of the day by the needs and demands of her offspring.

The need to go on and on about how hard parenting is bores me... yes, it is. Of course it is. And some days it's harder than others... some days it just sucks mostly because of the sneaky suspicion that you are doing everything wrong and your most beloved child is going to need a permanent spot on the couch of your local psychiatrist. But does that mean that FOR YEARS it needs to be whined about? Doesn't life ever take a different turn? To whew, everyone sleeping through the night... welcome back sex life! Or, hooray! Potty training success! How wonderful!

Yes, I have used my blog as an outlet to vent... as have many of the blogs I read on a regular basis... I would never suggest that a person not share or look for support... or not tell a funny story because the Lord knows that there is nothing I like more than a good old parenting mishaps (they make me feel better about myself), but I also like to hear about the sweet in people's lives and I hate when I start to feel that children and their moments are being trotted out for blog fodder, page views and ad clicks.

19 comments:

Yeah I kinda quit giving a rats hairy hootchie about things like potty training the very instant mine were done with it... and I never felt the need to share it with the world. But they're mid and late teens now so it's not like potty training is still an issue. I vent on my blog quite a lot. And sometimes it's about the kids, but most of the time it's just yammering about the funny things... or.. ok... bitching about the husband but THAT is usually because something HE did was funny. Even if he didn't think it was. And he still hasn't managed to grow longer legs.

I have to admit, I am working on this... I don't vent on my blog, but to my friends... I am trying to just enjoy more. Funny story: while playing catch with my son I hit him in the mouth with the ball and he has a huge lip. We were at the Dr.( for another reason) and she asks what happened to he lip. And his response?"my mom hit me inthe mouth!" failed to mention the with a baseball and by ACCIDENT part! I e left a call from CPS any time now...

I hear ya, sister. It's all in the approach, and the whining approach really grates on me. I've actually been visiting dooce even less now that she's pregnant because how many ways do we need to hear her complain that she has to pee and she's gaining weight?

I always say that my blog is a cheap form of therapy and sure, I moan and whinge about my kids but I also have lots of posts about how wonderful and clever and cute and funny they are. And guess what? Some of my posts aren't even about my kids! Truly.